Forest Slave
by Sand Ninja Yexis Metallium
Summary: ALTERNATE ENDING! Chihiro gets separated from her parents again after going through the wrong of the three tunnels. She ends up in a forest and works at a factory, but there's no going back to the Human World.... Haku has to get her sometime or another. D


**Disclaimer:** I don't own it! I DON'T OWN IT! _runs away crying_

Wow, a fanfic! 'Tis a Spirited Away fanfic too! o.o maybe I should just get to a summary...

Summary: ALTERNATE ENDING! Chihiro and her parents go through the middle of the three tunnels, and get dumped out at a different spot of the Spirit World! After her parents escape from the tunnel crumbling and Chihiro is accidentally left behind, she sets off to find shelter (She knows this is the Spirit World). She then comes across a huge factory, and, by choice, works at it.

I bet people will get confused with the names. Because I watch the anime in Japanese and I don't pay attention to exactly what the characters are saying, I don't know if Chihiro's parents' names are mentioned. So the mom is Areria, and the dad is Adarufo. (Areria means golden, while Adarufo means wolf Majestic wolf ).

This is my first Spirited Away fanfic, so go easy on the critiques! _Gets paper and pen that say "critique" _ Also, since my memory is rather bad, I'm taking direct quotes and puting them in here, but they are most likely wrong. I'll correct them when I see the movie next. OK, now onto the story!

Second Tunnel: Forest's End

---------------------------------------------------------

"Promise?"

"I promise, now go, and don't look back."

Those few words ran though Chihiro's head as she ran down the unnaturally grassy hill, trying to get to the bottom without falling. Oh, how she regretted those words, even though she had said them not even a minute ago. Yes, she wanted her parents, but she didn't want to go either. She had made so many friends- Lin, the river spirit, No Face- that she was comfortable.

Finally, she spotted her parents, and forced her legs to move faster. After nearly slipping, she got to the bottom of the hill and ran up to her parents, automaticly clinging to her mom.

"There you are, Chihiro!"

"Are you sure you guys are OK?"

"What are you talking about, Chihiro. Now we had better get going, or the moving van'll get there before us."

Still clinging to her mom, Chihiro followed after them. In just a minute, they were overlooking the three tunnels in the "plaster" building.

"Now, which one did we go through?" Adarufo pondered.

"Let's just try the center one. If it's wrong, we can always come back," Areria answered.

"Mom, Dad, I don't think that's a good idea..." Chihiro complained.

Without answering, Adarufo and Areria went into the tunnel, with a scared Chihiro running after them. She clung to her mother and looked ahead. The tunnel was so long that she couldn't see the other side.

"I don't think this is the right way," Chihiro stated.

"Nonsense, we're going the right way," Adarufo assured. The reassuring didn't help Chihiro at all.

After a couple minutes, a faint light told them that the end of the tunnel was near. It got steadily brighter with each echoing step they took down the long hall. Finally after about five minutes, Chihiro walked into the sunlight. She blinked, her eyes getting used to the sudden light, then after her vision cleared she took a look around.

Ahead of them was a trail, about ten feet wide, and when the left side of it ended, it sloped into an almost vertical drop, then met with a small, gently flowing river. The heavy smell of pine lingered in the air, with the same trees surrounding them for what looked like a few score miles. Redwoods occasionally dotted the giant forest, and had dark brown bark, so dark that it also looked like another pine tree at first glance. The trail was covered in all sorts of growth, making it look like it hadn't been used in many years. The ground was damp, with pine needles strewn all across it, and small sprouts of grass poked up from the bed, soon to die from the bed of needles smothering it.

Something about this place and its vastness told Chihiro to stay away. But her parents didn't seem to think so.

"Oh, this place is absolutely beautiful!" Areria exclaimed, "Let's explore a little more before we go back."

"We really should go back! What if we get lost?" Chihiro yelled. She didn't want a repeat of the bath house event.

"Just a little farther," said Adarufo, walking off.

Chihiro refused to budge. She didn't want to go, and maybe if she just didn't move, her parents would have to turn back.

"We'll miss the moving van!" Chihiro yelled again, trying to convince them to turn back.

Areria sighed and turned around. "Alright, but ony because of the moving van. We'll have to come back and explore this place!"

Chihiro gasped with relief. There might not be anything wrong with this place, but she didn't want to take any chances. She let her parents walk in front of her a few feet before walking herself. Just as they were about to enter the tunnel, Areria looked back.

"I hope we can even find this place, the forest getting here was a maze."

At first, it was unnoticable, but it got louder and louder. Adarufo turned around from looking at his wife, to looking at the tunnel. A small rock fell from the ceiling, and right behind it, a bigger one fell. Looking alarmed, Adarufo and Areria called for Chihiro to stay close, and took off running. Over the noise, Chihiro didn't hear them, but screamed and ran when she saw them going through the tunnel. A few feet into the tunnel, though, she had to retreat. When she managed to stumble out of the long hall, it crumbled, leaving Chihiro to gape. It was just tunnel, nothing more, and the only thing behind it was the trail, river, and more trees.

After a couple minutes of sitting on one of the felled rocks in awe, Chihiro stood up, shaking horribly. Again she was separated from her parents. Knowing there was no way to go back, Chihiro hit the trail, hoping to come across something or someone that could provide her shelter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chihiro had walked HOURS, but still, there was nothing around her but trees, trees, and that annoying river that was gently flowing in its annoying way. If anyone had given her the chance, she would have destroyed something out of sheer boredom and frustration. To accompany that, she was extremely hungry, but not thirsty, since the river had a good, clean source of water. Yeah, pinecones had nuts, but those she couldn't get (even if she could, it would be too tedious for her to handle), and there was no wildlife around-- if there was, she'd find some way to kill something. She had not eaten breakfast, since she left Zaniba's house before dawn, and right after that she went to her parents. Then she HAD to follow them into this place, and her mom HAD to look back, making the only way back crumble to pieces.

Chihiro didn't notice it at all until she nearly ran into a post. Surprised, she looked up and smiled. A huge factory was above her, with smoke billowing out of the many smokestacks towering above the ground. Right now, she didn't care whether she had to work or not, as long as this place provided shelter, food, and some place to be other than in the forest by the river. The forest had ended about a hundred meters away, with the river bending towards and past it, providing the factory with constant fresh water. The river had gotten even more slow-moving, and you could now just barely see it flowing.

When Chihiro was done looking the monsterous building over, she turned her attention to the creatures working around it, who seemed to not be paying attention to her. That was a good thing; she didn't need anyone turning her into a lump of coal. She walked over to the building and stopped in front of long stairs that were going up to the doors. Every place in the Spirit World had to have something to stop human intruders. Chihiro took a deep breath, then plugged her nose to keep any breath from escaping. Then she ran up the stairs, ignoring the odd stares from other workers who were walking calmly up and down it. After stumbling twice and almost breathing once, she reached the top and, just to be safe, went inside and bent over, finally breathing. Her legs ached, her lungs burned, and she had a pain just under her rib cage from running up the stairs too fast. Despite the pain, she forced herself to get up and walk around. When she spotted someone that looked somewhat normal to her-- a frog that looked like the one she made friends with at the bathhouse-- she ran up to him... or her... and asked for directions.

"Can you please tell me where the ruler of this place is?" Chihiro asked, trying to be as polite as she could.

The frog thought it over for a minute, then, concluding that she wanted a job here, told her.

"He's lives in the second story. You can't miss it," the frog said.

"Thank you very much," Chihiro responded with a bow. Then she walked off to find an elevator to take her to the second floor.

The elevator wasn't very hard to find. There were elevators all over the place, and the only trouble she had was that she needed to find the one that had the character 'Superior' on it. Even then it wasn't hard to find, because it was elaboratly decorated with gold and had carvings that were very intricate and detailed. Chihiro scrambled inside, scared that someone might recognize her as a human, then pressed a clear button with an up arrow, stumbling as the elevator suddenly took off with amazing speed. She leaned against the railing of the elevator, waiting for it to get to the second floor, then when it did, had to stop herself from gagging from the high amounts of butterflies she was getting in her stomach from it stopping so suddenly. The doors opened, revealing the second floor, and Chihiro stepped out, clutching her stomach.

When the elevator went back down to fetch someone, Chihiro turned around. She climbed up a couple steps which led to a sliding door, on which she knocked. When no one answered, she opened the door slowly to alert anyone who was in there that she was coming in, then without turning around, closed it behind her. It was then she heard a deep, sinister-sounding voice.

"Welcome, Chihiro."

-----------------------------------------

Wow, I think this came out much better than the Slayers fanfiction I'm writing now! I liked how this chapter flowed together... And yes, it's meant to go into the plot this fast! I know I already got into a cliffy, but... that was meant to happen too!

I have NO IDEA how long this is going to be. I haven't planned ANYTHING, and even in this chapter I had to make things up as I went. But, things like that often turn out pretty good (like this chapter) and I'm content with doing that!

I like good things and critiques, but no flames, cause I'll just feed them to my Hitteh Pitteh doll! (Isn't it soooo CUTE!)

One more thing. I'm am a thirteen year old! I do not know how to spell quite a few words, and I do have grammar mistakes (I'll be kind of surprised if I don't) Please point these things out to me, including confusing paragraphs/sentences! That would be all.


End file.
